ABSTRACT
The provocative titles of the biographies of a number of well-known professional Christian boxers, such as God in My Corner (Foreman, 2007), Knocking out the Devil (Svab, 2011) and Holyfield the Humble Warrior (1996), raise a host of ethical quandaries and for the social scientist and theologian. However, a recent review of literature on sports and Christianity (Watson and Parker, 2014) found that aside from Phil Shirley’s insightful popular book, The Soul of Boxing (1999), that is based on fascinating interview data with some of the world’s most well-known boxers who hold religious beliefs (e.g. Tyson, Holyfield, Watson), academic literature on this topic is sparse.
